


always on and on

by MaymayC



Category: Bandstand - Oberacker/Oberacker & Taylor
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Army, F/M, I promise, M/M, Multi, Slow Build, eventually, more relationships and stuff to come later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-27
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-29 06:26:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15067139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaymayC/pseuds/MaymayC
Summary: A Modern!AU where pretty much everything is the same, but I still somehow manage to change almost everything...





	always on and on

**Author's Note:**

> This is purely self indulgent.  
> I've been working on this for like, almost a year now, but it's not super polished oh well.   
> I've tried to make this as accurate as possible to real life military stuff but I don't have a lot of experience in that area and the internet is not perfect so please let me know if I got something really terribly wrong.  
> Don't know how often this will update, or how long it will be, but expect at least five chapters. (I meant to make it a lot farther in this first chapter but it was already ten pages and i had so much to go still whoops)
> 
> title is a quote from "the voyage out" by virginia woolf
> 
> anyways, please enjoy

_“…Breaking news: at least five U.S. soldiers have been captured in Syria during a hostage crisis rescue operation yesterday. The Department of Defense could not be reached for comment at this time. This story will be updated as more information becomes available.”_ – CNN News, 2014.

 

(2007)

“I now present, for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Trojan!”

            Julia reached up to kiss Michael again, her joy bubbling up inside her like champagne. It had seemed like this wedding was forever in the making – nineteen years in fact – but finally, after a year of planning, they could enjoy it.

            Their wedding. Julia is married. To the love of her life.

            Michael finally pulled away and pressed his forehead to hers. “Mrs. Trojan,” he said, so softly she could only just hear him over the sound of their friends and family clapping. Julia laughed. “Shall we make our way to the car?”

            Julia looped her arm through his. “Lead the way, Mr. Trojan.”

 

Three hours later, Julia was regretting having invited Dorothy’s mother, despite their having been neighbors for nearly twenty years. She loved Dorothy like a sister, but her mother Helen was so goddamn nosy.

            “Now, when is young Michael shipping out dear?” Helen asked her for the third time in the past hour.

            Julia gritted her teeth into what she hoped resembled a smile. “Two weeks from now.”

            “Oh, you poor child,” Helen sighed. Julia lifted her wine glass and drained it to avoid responding. “So little time to enjoy married life, if you know what I mean dear.” Julia choked on her mouthful of wine.

            “Mrs. Holt,” she said through her coughs. “Michael and I have been dating since we were thirteen. We… um… well…” She made desperate eye contacts with Dorothy across the room; her friend, familiar with her mother’s conversational skills, began efficiently making her way towards them.

            Helen was still chattering on. “…want you to know that we’re always here if you ever want to talk or -”

            “Mom! Mind if I steal Julia away to get refills?” In one fell swoop Dorothy had saved her and gotten her a new drink.

            “Remind me why I didn’t marry you?” Julia quipped, gratefully accepting her new drink.

            “We would never last – I’m far too high maintenance.” Dorothy tossed her hair dramatically.

            “Ugh, I thought for a minute I was going to have to explain pre-marital sex to your mother,” Julia said, leaning against the bar. Dorothy rolled her eyes.

            “Ah, yes. My favorite conversation to have with my mother,” she said. “Did she get to the part where she laments the fact that you don’t have a baby to remember Michael by?”

            Julia groaned. “How many times will I have to explain to our moms that we’re waiting ‘till it won’t technically count as a teen pregnancy?”

            “Says Mrs. Married-her childhood-sweetheart-at-nineteen.”

            “Shut up!” Both girls laughed a little.

            “But really,” Dorothy said after a moment. “I’m happy for you.”

            “Thank you,” Julia said. Dorothy wrapped an arm around Julia’s waist; she leaned her head down onto her friend’s shoulder with a soft sigh. “Are you still coming to Midnight Breakfast before I take Michael to the airport?”

            “One last hurrah for the Three Musketeers of West Cleveland? I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

            “What are the two loveliest ladies in the building doing playing wallflower?” Michael appeared from somewhere behind Julia and dropped a kiss on her cheek.

            “I’ll take ‘Avoiding Our Families’ for 200,” Julia said, and Dorothy started loudly humming the Jeopardy theme.

            “Fair enough,” Michael laughed. “But I do need to tell you that the band leaves in an hour and as the three most important people at this shindig, we gotta show our guests how to party.”

            “Lead the way, army boy!” Dorothy said, and he did.

 

The silence in the car was the loudest Julia had ever lived through, such a stark contrast to the joyful laughter from breakfast with Dorothy.

            They sat in the parked car, the engine still running. She knew she should turn it off, but if she turned it off they would have to get out of the car and go into the building and walk to the gate and say goodbye and then Michael would get on the plane and he would leave he would leave Michael was leaving her –

            Michael reached over from the passenger seat and turned the key. Just like that the comforting rumble of the engine was gone and Julia’s harsh breathing was the loudest noise in the car. They stayed that way for what felt to Julia like an eternity.

            Eventually, Michael spoke. “Do you remember when we were in kindergarten?” he asked her.

            She did. The two of them had grown up just two doors down from one another and their mothers were two of the only single moms in the neighborhood. Consequently, they had shared babysitting duties, and Julia and Michael had grown up in one another’s back pockets. They never spent more than eight hours apart for almost four years.  By the time they hit kindergarten, they were thoroughly devoted to one another, which had disastrous consequences. When they arrived at the school and were sent to separate classrooms, Michael threw the biggest tantrum of his short life and spent the day in time out. Julia cried the entire day, which made most of the other children cry too. This carried on for several days until the teachers gave in, and moved Julia to Michael’s class.

            “I will kick and scream at and bite whoever I need to so that I come back on time. Okay? I promise.” Julia felt his gaze on her face, but she couldn’t bring herself to meet his eyes. “But we have to get out of the car, Jules. Waiting just makes it harder.”

            “Okay,” she whispered. “Okay.”

            Every step they took seemed to echo in Julia’s ear, taunting her – _Michael’s leaving, Michael’s leaving_. The moments dragged out long and distorted in front of her, as if they would never arrive at the precise one when he would have to leave her behind.

            But then, suddenly, Michael was being told to board the plane, and he was standing up (when had they sat down?), pulling Julia up with him. The panic flared in her chest. Julia wrapped her arms around his torso so tightly she thought they might break. Burying her face in his shoulder, she inhaled, trying to memorize his smell – their laundry detergent and the spice of his men’s deodorant mingling with the lingering scent of paper from whatever book he had been reading earlier. She felt him kiss the top of her head.

            “One year, yeah?” Michael whispered. “That’s not so bad.” Julia nodded, not trusting her voice. “Think of it this way,” he said. “We’ll have a new record for our longest time spent apart.”

            “I hate that record,” she mumbled.

            “Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, me too.”

            Julia lifted her face finally to kiss him deeply. “I’ll write to you every day,” she said, unable to keep her voice from cracking. “And we’ll skype every week.”

            “I love you so much Julia,” Michael said.

            “I love you Michael,” she said.

            She held in the tears that were threatening to spill over for as long as possible so she could watch him disappear down the ramp. And then, between one blurry blink and the next, he was gone.

 

That first week was the hardest. Julia counted herself lucky that her boss was her mother, so she was allowed to take three days in a row off of work.

            On the morning of the fourth day Julia got up a four am and took the stairs from the apartment that had been a wedding gift from her mother to the bakery downstairs that they owned and ran.

            She felt a sense of serenity settle into her when she set foot in the kitchen. The order of assembling cookies and pastries from a recipe soothed her, emptying her mind as she followed the instructions she had known by heart since she was nine years old.

            She didn’t realize how long it had been until her mother knocked on the door and said, “Julia can you come work the register? Anna’s running late and we need to open.”

            Julia blinked in surprise and glanced at the clock; the hands pointed unerringly to eight o’clock. Her mother stood in the doorway, unwilling to push her before she was ready. Michael’s voice rang in her ear – _“Waiting will only make it worse.”_ So she untied her apron and said “Of course Ma,” steadily, and stepped out into the front room.

 

Julia settled into the new rhythm of her life – working on the weekdays, hanging out with Dorothy whenever their schedules miraculously align, and skyping or calling Michael once a week on Sunday afternoons. When August arrived, she helped Dorothy pack for her sophomore year of college. They road tripped to Maryland and, once they had unpacked everything, they sent pictures to Michael.

            With Dorothy gone at school, calling Michael became the brightest parts of Julia’s weeks. When he could get alone, he told her about the people in his squad. After the novelty of teasing Michael had worn off, his friends left them alone, and each time Michael spent at least ten minutes talking about Donny.

            “You know,” Julia said one day, interrupting Michael’s story about Donny’s joke at dinner the other night. “You’re gonna have to introduce him to me one of these days.”

            “Actually,” Michael said, a grin spreading across his face. “I think I saw him skulking around here a second ago. Hang on a sec –” He cupped his hands around his mouth and leaned back across his bunk as he shouted, “Hey! Nova!”

            Julia laughed as the door behind Michael opened and a head poked through. She could just barely catch it as the figure said “What the fuck Rubber?”

            “Come over here,” Michael said. The figure approached cautiously and leaned on the end of Michael’s bunk so that Julia could only see the edge of pants. Michael sighed exaggeratedly and rolled his eyes to Julia. With one hand, he reached up and yanked Donny down to sit on the bed next to him. “You gotta sit so she can see you, idiot” Michael said, pulling Donny close so their sides pressed together from knee to shoulder. Donny’s ears glowed a bright red. He was a cute boy, with dark hair that flopped over his forehead and a deep tan.

            “Sorry,” he said.

            “Jules, this is Donny Novitski, the baby of the squad,” Michael said.

            “For the last time, I’m eighteen! You’re not even that much older than me,” Donny said, pushing Michael’s shoulder until he fell over with a laugh. They played at a fight for a minute until Julia cleared her throat pointedly.

            “Donny, meet my wonderful wife Julia,” Michael said with a gesture towards the screen. Julia waved.

            “Hi Donny. It’s nice to finally put a face to the name.”

            Donny groaned. “Oh, no. Listen, whatever Michael told you, don’t believe him.”

            Julia laughed. “It’s all good things, I promise.”

            Michael shrugged. “There’s nothing bad to tell.” He paused and the redness that had previously been confined to Donny’s ears started to spread down to his cheeks. “Well, I mean, except for the snoring.”

            “Oh, shut up!” Donny said, and he turned to smile at Julia, who was watching the exchange bemusedly. “I should get going, but it was nice to meet you Julia.”

            “Likewise, Donny.”

            She and her husband waited quietly until Donny had shut the door behind himself. Then, with no warning, Julia started to cackle uncontrollably.

            “Oh. My. God.” She choked out between laughs.

            “He’s cute, right?” Michael was grinning so hard his face had to have hurt.

            “You know he has a crush on you,” Julia said when she could breathe again.

            “You think so?” Michael asked nonchalantly.

            “Wait a minute,” Julia said. “Oh my god, that why you introduced us – you knew I’d know and you wanted my opinion!”

            “Well?” Michael said, more nervously this time. “What do you think?”

            “I think he’s adorable and charming and you should get on that you big nerd,” Julia said with a smile.

            Michael sighed in relief. “Have I ever told you how much I love you?”

            “Tell me again.”

 

Michael kept her updated about Donny, but as far as Julia knew, nothing had come of Michael’s subtle flirtations. Donny kept him at a slight distance.

 

(2008)

The morning of Michael’s return dawned quiet, as most of the mornings of the past year had. The longest year of Julia’s life. Some days had felt like an eternity, while others had flown by, but one by one they had disappeared until it was over.

            Julia woke with the sun, too wired to sleep even though Michael’s plane wasn’t due in until later in the evening. The rest of that last day yawned open in front of her like a chasm. She drifted through the apartment restlessly, trying to fill the time with various distractions, eventually resorting to calling her mother on the phone, even though they live five minutes apart. She hummed occasionally to keep the conversation alive as she wondered and worried about her husband.

            “Julia?” Her mother’s voice snapped her back to the present. “Do you want a ride to the airport?”

            They rode in silence, a mirror image of the ride one year earlier, Julia’s trek to the same airport to leave Michael behind. But where before she had been silent with dread, now Julia almost vibrated with anticipation.

            The moment the car was parked, she was out and moving. She took the stairs two at a time, waiting occasionally for her mother to catch up.

            They stood in the designated military gate with dozens of other family members who were just as eagerly waiting, caught in the same limbo. It felt like they were all holding the same breath.

            Suddenly, the doors opened, and men and women in camo started to pour out of the jet way. Julia watched, scanning the crowd for Michael. For a few heart stopping seconds he was nowhere to be found, and she felt the panic creeping in.

            Then, finally, she saw him, the crush of people shifting just enough for them to make eye contact. She moved as quickly as she could while maintaining a veneer of politeness, but when a gap opened and she saw him just a few feet away for the first time in a year, it vanished. She threw herself those last few feet, jumping into his arms.

            He caught her and spun around in a tight circle. Once her feet were on the ground again, he kissed her the way she had wanted to kiss him all those long months. As he hugged her once more, Julia looked over his shoulder and saw Donny. He stood alone, an island of stillness in a sea of joyful and chaotic movement.

            “Donny!” It slipped out before she knew what she was doing. Michael followed her gaze and waved Donny over. The other boy slouched over to meet them.

            “Hey Julia. It’s nice to meet you…again.” He offered a smile that seemed more like a grimace.

            “Do you need a ride?” Julia asked.

            “I don’t… I don’t actually know where I’m going.” He shifted uncomfortably.

            Julia shared a dismayed look with Michael. “Hey, Nova, why don’t you stay with us for a while?” Michael offered. “Our couch’s not great, but it’s better than sleeping here.”

            Donny seemed to be weighing his options. Michael slapped him on the back and said “C’mon kid, let’s go home.”

 

Julia woke up early the next morning, wrapped tightly in Michael’s arms. She slid out to check on Donny in the living room, but when she got there the room was empty, the sheets she had taken out for him folded in a neat pile at the end of couch. Nothing but the light moved in the room.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on tumblr @awitchorwhat, or on twitter @its_megie
> 
> comments motivate me and fuel my ego


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